


Women of Myth

by TheReaderthatReads



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Norse Religion & Lore, Original Work, The Facts of Life
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Death, F/F, Greek Mythology - Freeform, OFC - Freeform, Orginal Female Character - Freeform, Original Character Death(s), Out of Character, Psychological Drama, Psychological Trauma, Queer Character, Romance novel level of cheesieness, Slice of Life, mild body horror, the above is not really mentioned but elements are there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:43:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5580850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheReaderthatReads/pseuds/TheReaderthatReads
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate is dead. She understands this so why is this blue eyed women glaring at her? </p><p>"My current status?  Right now it’s looking into the bluest eyes that I have ever seen.  Am I in love?  Well…I have no idea: the reason that I’m looking into these blue eyes is because I was just hit by a truck. "</p><p> </p><p>This could be read as a fandom piece or a stand alone story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Women of Myth

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: I will probably be taking this down in the near future and giving it a throughout edit as well as adding some content.
> 
> A friend recently told me that if I want to read more stories in a fandom that I need to create more stories in said fandom. At the same time I saw a challenge on Facebook about how they wanted more LGBTQ stories without the coming out drama and angst. They also wanted more stories with different types of mythological creatures. Ask and you shall receive. 
> 
> I haven't written anything in over 4 years so I feel as though I should mention that this (as of posting) is not bettaed/ proofread by anyone other than me at 3 am. So any mistakes are my own. If you have any constructive criticism to leave I would love to hear it. I also used Google translate Greek, so if anyone has any tips, please let me know. Translations at the end.

 

         It started with a bang. Not the universe, well that’s not what I mean; I mean my life or rather this limbo that is my current status.  My current status?  Right now it’s looking into the bluest eyes that I have ever seen.  Am I in love?  Well…I have no idea: the reason that I’m looking into these blue eyes is because I was just hit by a truck. Ok, ok it wasn’t a truck, it was a 4 door Honda but at the time it looked… you know what? It was powerful enough to kill me let’s just leave it at that.  So how am I looking into these blue eyes? I’m not sure. All I know is that she is kneeling over me looking at my face. Let me tell you it’s a bit disconcerting because you _know_ that you are dead but here you are awake or what at least what feels like being awake with these intense eyes on you that belong to this towering woman with warm brown hair that is giving you this weird glare…wait is she…? Oh no, she better not be glaring at me! I am dead! I have rights! Or at least I think I do.  She gets up and offers me her hand like she wants to shake my hand or like when you help someone sitting stand up.

          “Ya gonna move anytime soon princess? I have things to do sometime this century.”

Well I now know that she has a slight Bronx accent, that she does not want to shake my hand and I can strike the possibility that she is an angel off of my list, that is, if I had one, due to her rude behavior. If I were the usual type of ghost, which I suppose is what I am, I would be/should be asking the usual questions like: What is going on? How did I get here? Am I really dead?  Well there is only one way to find out and I guess I better peel myself off the pavement and get some answers. Once I am up an at ‘em she starts to walk away.  Man is she a power walker! However lucky for me she stopped a few feet away, in an alley, near where I previously was on the ground. Everything hurts; I thought things weren’t supposed to hurt when you’re dead, that you are free from pain…what a rip off!  When I finally reach her, she seems to be alternating between glaring deep into my soul or refusing to look at me, which is pretty weird cause I’m at the point where I am pretty sure that she is some type of death spirit/god/creature thingamabob, which means she should be used to looking at dead people. Maybe it’s a Monday thing, is it a Monday? I can’t remember.

            “Excuse me Miss god/spirit/whatever? Is it Monday?”

Oops. Not the question I meant to ask but it was going to really bug me if I didn’t know what day it was and I guess it was also a good  ice breaker because the second I finished my question those eyes were back on me.

            “Huh?”

            “Well you know when you can’t place an actors name and it starts to bug you? It’s like that except I also have a few other questions like: What is going on? How did I get here?”

I guess I am like all of those other ghosts, the ones in the movies, I don’t know or see any other ghosts at the moment, but I didn’t take a good look around, oh, I wonder if my body is still on the ground like the movies too. I put my hands in front my face. They aren’t see-through, and I feel solid, I wonder if my body looks all bloody….

             “Don’t turn around”

Before she sounded like an old New Yorker aggravated about having to give some lost tourist directions, but with this command I felt it. I felt, I don’t know but it felt like the command of someone in a very serious situation. Like if I moved the bad guy would get me, that is if we were in a horror movie.

            “Okay. Can you elaborate a little on that? Because you aren’t saying a lot and I am like 80% sure that someone is supposed to be explaining things to me.”

            “Trust me you don’t need to know what your body looks like.”

            “Ok, well you aren’t new to being dead, and I am starting to get concerned as to why I am not getting any answers, and that sounded rude!”

            “Listen princess, you are dead. This is the afterlife. I am not your welcome wagon, figure it out for yourself! Stop trying to look at your body! You won’t be able to handle seeing yourself.”

            “My name is not princess, its Kate Burnshaw.  Also you just contradicted yourself! If you’re not the welcome wagon you can a) stop telling me what to do, b) tell me your name and why you are here!”

I turned around before she could respond. What I saw I think shocked me more than seeing my lifeless body on the ground, except there was no body. Paramedics and police were all hovering over this blank space.

           “I don’t get it. I moved from there, but my body should have been left behind right? Right?! I died there. I know I died, that I _am_ dead but I am over here. People would have seen me get up and move to over here. I have to get their attention; they don’t need to be wasting their time on a blank space when I am over here. I have to get to them I have to…”

I felt a hand grab my wrist. I didn’t even realize that I was speaking aloud or that I even started to move towards the scene in front of me.

            “Don’t.” she spoke again in that voice. I would realize later that it was power but also kindness that made her voice sound that way.

            “Let go of me you, you, you monster! What is wrong with you?! You freak! What did you do to me! Let me go! I need to be over there!”

            “Fine. You busybody since you won’t listen ta me, let me give you an education!”

She let go of my wrist and grabbed the back of my head and walked me to the blank space, mumbled something, and unleashed what can only be described as something out of Dante’s Inferno. I couldn’t see my body. What I could see is my body being torn to shreds, being eaten by true monsters. They were creatures that looked like bird-women with long talons dressed in rags with crusty blood as the only dye, a dye made from previous victims and my blood. The smell was overpowering. I could feel my eyes water. But I didn’t dare so much as blink because as soon I could see them they could see me. I held my breath. Was the creature holding me going to feed me to them? The monsters grinned at me with their fangs, blood and my flesh stuck between them. Their eyes not leaving me, they open their mouths, death filling the air, they begin to speak, each one saying only one word, completing each other’s sentences.

            “Why isn’t it little Ιωαννα?  We see that you are the reason our dinner is soul-free. We’ll tell you what, why don’t you hand over the soul and we will let you hunt with us. It must be terrible not to be able to hunt in the βόλτ. After all it does not look like you are getting much to eat. Wouldn’t you rather feed with the ίχνη?”

I can feel myself start to shake. That’s it. I am going to be dinner. I will be super dead and dead by the hands of these monsters. I feel the tears start to slide down my cheeks. Unable to take my eyes of these monsters, I feel her puffs of breath on my hair as she whispers in my ear.

            “Relax. I won’t let them getcha.”

She straightens her back and I hear the dominance and the smirk in her voice when she addresses the monsters in front of me.

            “I have no affiliation to the βόλτ. I have obtained my meal. You will go back to yours, you σκουπιδιάρης.”

            “How dare you insult the βόλτ! You have forgotten your heritage and our power, Outsider! We will take your meal as retribution for your insults.”

            “Come one step closer and I will show ya my power or have you forgotten my power as it comes from our shared heritage?! Should I remind ya whose territory you came into?”

            “We remember half breed. We will let you keep your meal but remember that the βόλτ have long memories and that retribution will be payed.”

            “Fine. Ya next dinner will be on me.”

I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. What if they don’t accept? If a fight breaks out who will win? There are more of them than there are of us. They began to whisper among themselves. When they finished they turned and continued speaking in that horrible voice.

            “The βόλτ accepts this as payment. We will convey this event back to your μητέρα.”

            “Great. We will be going now. Have fun with your carcass.”

Slowly we backed away from them, until we were a safe distance away and then we very quickly walk away into a different alley where she finally let go of me.

            “What the hell was that?! What type of person does that, were you trying to start a fight?! They were eating my body! Those monsters were eating my body! Did you get some type of sick pleasure from that?  That was just beyond cruel!”

By the time I finished I realized that I had been yelling, and it all hit me at once. I am dead. I am dead and I have no idea what is going around me, my body is being eaten by monsters and I begin to sob. As the creature who I guess is called Ιωαννα looked at me I could see something change in her face. As I begin to cry harder she comes over to me and wraps her arm around my shoulder and sits me down on the ground against a grimy wooden fence. Admittedly it feels weird to be comforted by the person you are mad at.   

            “Hey, hey don’t worry I wasn’t gonna let them getcha. I just had to show ya why you need to listen to me. If you had gone back there on your own you would have been shredded.”

She said all of this with a soft smile on her face. This was not the most comforting thing in the world and I only could cry harder. I could see panic begin to take over in her eyes.

            “Listen kid I’m sorry. Really sorry, what can I do to make it up to you?”

I take a deep breath and look at her, really look at her. She is wearing a pair of well used jeans with a light blue long sleeved blouse rolled to the elbows, an open red vest over it and an oxford blue loosely tied tie. Her black motorcycle boots only completed the look. I noticed earlier she wasn’t as tall as I originally thought. She had to be only a little taller than me and I am 5’6. She looked like she had spent the week tanning and was definitely athletic. I suppose you would have to be athletic if you encountered monsters like that all the time.  As I continue to take deep breaths to calm down I study her face. Aside from her piercing blue eyes which stood out all the more because they were tight lined with black eyeliner, her oval face had a somewhat flat down pointed noise like an upside down arrow. Her hair is pulled into a ponytail with some sort of bang in the front. Her lips…I feel ice water wash over me. Damn it, the whole tomboyish thing is exactly my type and a perfect distraction. She mentioned that I was dinner. _Her dinner._  Okay I have to play it cool, maybe if I keep talking it will distract her. Taking a deep breath I ask:

            “While I think about what you can do to make up your atrocious behavior, maybe you could tell me about yourself and about those monsters?”

            “Uh yeah. Sure thing kid. Those monsters out there are called Keres. They are from Greek legend. They are female spirits of a violent death, like your accident. They traditionally feed on blood but nowa days their diet also includes souls.”

            “Would you stop calling me kid? I'm 25 or at least I was. Anyway how do you know them? You said that you are half Keres earlier when you were speaking to them, why don’t you look like them? Also is your name really…sorry I forgot how to say it.”

            “It’s Ιωαννα but the more non-Greek way to say it is Joanna but I go by Jo. I am half Keres, which is why I don’t do that creepy group speak. The other half of me is a Disir. They are a little more complex than the Keres. The Disir are Old Norse guardian female spirits that are sometimes tied to a location, person or group. And unlike the Keres which are more animalistic, the Disir can be advantageous or warlike. Don’t worry about what that makes me. I still don’t understand how my moms’ meet but since both groups reproduce homosexually, 4 months later here I am. ”

            “Oh I see. You have a very interesting family tree. Are you tied to one place like the Disir, _Jo_?"

            “Well _Kate,_ since you asked, yes I am, which is why the Keres made that crack about slim pickings over here because I am tied to this neighborhood. Don’t think I can’t see what you’re doing, trying to keep me talkin’ so I won’t eat you. You don’t have to worry; I am part Disir which is a guardian spirit. It  means I won’t eat you like the Keres did. My diet is different than theirs and as such how I consume my food is very different. It is also why I protected you.”

            “I am still not too excited about being your dinner. What if I escape and run out of your territory?”

I should mention that I am still sitting next to her on the ground with her arm around my shoulder and her other hand on my knee.

            “Go ahead and try but I am physically not bound, it just means you leave my protection and my territory. But if you want to try your luck with the next spirit be my guest.”

            “I can’t believe that I am saying this but how would you eat me? Is it like a vampire thing?”

            “In a way I guess. I well…”

Man is she blushing. When she says that she will eat me she doesn’t mean…?  She did mention that her people reproduce homosexually and that hand, which has moved higher, isn’t exactly in the friendship zone. It would make sense if she was gay or at least queer. Well if it is what I think it is, it will be one hellava way to go. I’m so down for this (pardon the pun). Odd I never thought I would be this excited about my “death” This is sure turning out to be an interesting afterlife.

            “Kate, Kate, you have this glazed look in your eye. It’s not what you think it is. We aren’t having sex, I mean maybe in the future if you’re up for it but what we do is basically (French) kiss except it’s not really a kiss. It’s me absorbing a part of your soul so as it nourishes my body, you become tied to me and I become your guardian. You are then safe from harm in my territory and under my protection in others.”

            “Ok first yes to the sex later, second I accept your terms, third I figured out how you can repay me. I will be under your protection, _extra_ under your protection.”

            “Kate, you don’t have to use your favor, I will already protect you as stated when I finally “eat” you.”

            “Jo, I want _extra_ protection, like _potential girlfriend_ protection. If that is of course agreeable with you.”

            “I still don’t…oh, oh, Oh, ya sure, that is definitely… that is agreeable. Now can we get this show on the road huh?”

             “Okay. Yeah let’s do this.”

We stand up; I think the grime and the wet ground was starting to get to both of us. Plus I think my legs were starting to fall asleep. I really wasn’t sure what to do; I’ve never had a part of my soul eaten before. She’s standing but a hairs breath away and of course my palms start to sweat. She places one hand on my lower back and one the back of my neck. I feel myself break out into goose bumps as I encircle her waist.

          “Sorry I need to make sure I hold you still.”

She leans back and gives me this big smile that reaches her eyes and makes them go all squinty. That’s it. I’m pretty sure my heart just melted like I am literally goo and we haven’t even had lip contact yet. When our lips do touch, I feel this pull from within. The only way I could describe is it feels like sharing oxygen with someone under water. The senses go on overload yet are so singularly focused on this one thing. Just when I feel like I have nothing left, not a single bit of oxygen in my body, she pulls away and smiles. She gives me what feels like hours to catch my breath. I guess that is understandable considering she just ate a part of my soul. She lets go of me once I guess it looks like the oxygen has returned to my body.        

            “How ya feeling, are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”

            “I feel okay, weird but okay.”

She reaches out and holds my hand.

            “That’s great. You should feel better now that the exchange has settled.”

She is just standing there with that fantastic smile, that I just couldn’t take it. I close the distance, wrap my arms around her neck and well, kiss her. I still feel breathless this time around while kissing her but for obviously different reasons. This time around I get to really enjoy it without losing a part of my soul. I notice how her thumb rubs these tiny little circles on my lower back that are driving me nuts in the best way possible. And how she smells like a cross between a forest and the Mediterranean breeze. Which I didn’t even think was possible, but it is and it is amazing. It doesn’t matter that we are in an alley and that the sunlight is starting to fade as it moves into the afternoon. I am in this moment a part of her as much as she is a part of me. And it all started with a bang.   

**Author's Note:**

> Ιωαννα = Joanna
> 
> The next bit is terminology that is used to describe vultures since the Keres are said to circle battlefields looking for their next meal. 
> 
> βόλτ= Volt. Used to describe a group of vultures resting. I choose this to describe a group of Keres en mass.  
> ίχνη= Wake. A term used to describe a group of vultures eating.  
> σκουπιδιάρης= Scavenger.
> 
> Thank You for reading.


End file.
